Art and the Mundane - Vague Notions

Today FICTILIS will be brainstorming questions from my Process Mundane project through their Vague Notions series. Questions include: What is mundane to you? What does a mundane sensation feel like? How does it affect your physicality? What are some of the more dreaded mundane tasks in your life? How do you go about doing these tasks? Do you procrastinate or simply dive in? Do you often find yourself thinking about other things when you are doing something mundane? What would make these experiences more fulfilling, more playful and more engaging?

Vague Notions, a series of low-pressure, open-ended “brainstorming sessions”, at Interface Gallery in Oakland, CA between July 16th – August 10th 2014. FICTILIS and special guests will facilitate a series of scheduled sessions on topics submitted by artists from the Bay Area and beyond. All sessions are free and open to the public, and visitors are encouraged to use the chalkboards and other materials to conduct their own brainstorms during other open gallery hours (Wed-Sun 11-4).If you live in San Fran, please check it out.

Timothy Furstnau

Thanks to the interweb, every day I am introduced to the brilliant and wild minds and actions of human mammals in the world. Some of these humans are deep ocean biologists, some are hunter/gatherer chefs, some are parrot whisperers, some are everything else, and some are artists. The multi-talented and punctilious Timothy Furstnau falls into the "everything else" and "artists" categories of humans I've recently encountered on the web. His work is engaging, thoughtful and marvelously brain-tickling. 

A bit from Timothy's totally unpretentious and fun-to-read artist statement: 

I want to make work that speaks for itself, but it never quite does, does it? We need it to be about something, or at least to be something. And we need to speak for it. Okay then….

The more I work, the less important I think it is that people grasp what something is “about” than that they lose grasp of what exactly it is – that they come away asking “What was that?” and feeling, maybe, that the world, and our dealings within it, can be “about” much more than we may have thought.

Here is a peek at some of Timothy's solo projects and collaborative projects with co-conspiritor, Andrea Steves. You will definitely want to take the time and peruse his site and his collaborative project site, FICTILIS, while slowly sipping a beverage of your choice. 

How it Hurts

“How It Hurts” is a print and performance project. The book, released by Publication Studio (Portland) in 2013, presents itself as a study guide for pain examinations. It is the result of extensive research into, and quotation from, the tests and questionnaires used to measure pain in various clinical settings.

STEERTS YTIC

A text piece installed in the lobby of the Seattle’s Bush Hotel, applied to the inside surface of street-facing glass in the style of typical storefront window signage. It is installed to be ‘read’ from the inside, which appears backwards from outside, and it is precisely this apparent mistake of the installation that gets people to notice it. The text is referring to their side of the glass, to the space they inhabit, and even, specifically – to they themselves, and the very act of reading window signage.

10.-22.-38 Astoria II

10.-22.-38 Astoria is a collaborative print installation that transforms a gallery or other space into a floor-to-ceiling print exhibition and pop-up copy shop. (The name comes from the first xerographic print ever made – with permission by the Xerox corporation.)

Thumb Wars

A live, projected thumb-wrestling event. The activity onstage was simultaneously projected, using an overhead camera device called the Video Visualizer, onto a giant screen behind the participants. The matches were refereed by a uniformed, whistle-carrying member of FICTILIS with help (i.e. influence) from spectators. A live loop of thirty different versions of “Gonna Fly Now” (the theme from Rocky) played through the stage’s speakers.

Artwalking 101

Artwalking 101 is a series of pamphlets and a short clinic on “Artwalking”, or: “a form of human locomotion that incorporates movements not usually associated with the normal human gait; often dance-like, often an expression of joy, lightheartedness, or insouciance; may be done alone or in groups, in lines or rows; may incorporate props but does not require them; must get person(s) from one place to another.

My Dinner with 'My Dinner with Andre'

This project is exactly what its title sounds like: a full meal and wine served alongside the longest dinner scene in film history, with a menu taken directly from the film.